Review of Logic Pro 7

with notes on 7.1 and 7.2

page 9

As soon
as Apple announced the release of
Logic Pro 7, it was clear
this would be a major event in Logic's history. And now, after playing
with it for a while I can tell you, it IS! The last upgrade from Logic 6.3
to Pro 6 added many audio instruments and effects that were previously available
as add-ons. With this upgrade from Pro 6 to Pro 7, Logic once again breaks
ground in terms of new features. Read the documentation to
get the full understanding of them.

While Logic
remains the second most expensive software package (Nuendo takes the crown
here), you have to balance the decision with the fact that Logic gives you
more than any other sequencer package. You get more plugins, audio
instruments (soft synths) and mastering processors than the competition.
You don't have to go with extras plug ins unless you want to.

Logic Pro
7 is now supported fully at Apple's website. There is even an Apple-hosted
Logic 7
discussion forum. Notice the word "Emagic" is gone.
Logic Pro 7 is part of Apple's Pro line with Final Cut Pro HD, Motion, DVD
studio Pro and Shake. Pro 7 is an application designed for OS X; it
does not run in OS9 at all.

You might be asking what Logic Pro 7 adds
that Pro6 does not have. Take a look at the sidebar to the left.
I didn't include everything announced, just the important ones.
This a major upgrade.

Apple Loops and GarageBand

Tweak Sez:
It's a BreakThrough!Logic Pro 8 is here
in Apple's new Logic Studio software package.
The price s half of what Logic Pro
7 was, but has everything that version 7 had, plus numerous workflow
and graphic improvements, huge sample and loop libraries, and even a
full version of Sound Track Pro.

The most far reaching, perhaps, is the
integration of Apple Loops, which promises to bring to Logic a similar
functionality enjoyed by Sonar, Ableton Live and Acid users. Note
that Cubase SX III is also touting a similar feature. Yet the Apple
Loops format adds a twist. In addition to the common audio loop you
can use Apple loops based on audio instruments, complete with effects settings.
That could mean you could get better sounding time stretching, with fewer
artifacts, given your source instrument was of sufficient quality. Those
making beats may find this opens up a whole new domain of loop construction
possibilities.
Read more for the whole
picture, including screenshots of the Apple Loops Utility and Loops
Browser.

Caps
Lock KeyboardLets you play and record MIDI using your computer keyboard

The Virtual Domain Expands

With the inclusion of the three new audio
instruments, Sculpture, UltraBeat and the EFM1, Logic covers more ground
than before. Even with Logic 6 we were well beyond the point where
external synths and samplers were necessary to make music of high quality.
Now we are even further into the virtual domain adding drum machine capabilities,
a modeling synth with new possibilities for sound generation, and FM synthesis.
Naturally all audio instruments require CPU resources, but with Freeze Tracks
(introduced in the Logic 6 series) and now with distributed audio
processing, there is the promise of building huge, dense and super-fast
songs all in an expanded virtual domain.

Effects Plugins

After hearing the amp simulations in GarageBand,
I was hoping they would find their way into Logic. It looks like we
are about to get the real deal here. I am particularly enthused about
the new Pitch Correction plugin, hoping it works as well or better than
AutoTune, which requires a VSTi to AU shell to work in Logic Pro6.
I like the screenshots of the Multimeter, which looks like it is capable
of advanced analysis of the audio outputs. Linear Phase EQ, Vocal
Transformer, Match EQ, and Ringshifter look like great additions to the
plugin line up. Logic will have a total of 70 plugins in Pro 7.
For a
useful list of
all the Logic features, instruments, and plugins, check the product
description a zZounds.

Other Features of 7.0

I particularly love the possibilities of
recallable channel strips, that let you save all the settings of a mixer
channel as a preset. How many times have we tweaked a bass track a
certain way and wanted to recall it in a later song? I am imagining
a building a huge directory of these. The song templates is another
cool idea, something Cakewalk has had forever. Logic has long needed Global
track features, that let you specify the root key, tempo, transposition,
time signature and change them. I find transposition particularly
interesting. According to the documentation on Apple's site, your
Apple Loops will follow changes in transposition on this global track. Acid
has that feature, and it works great with loops in that application.

Audio Units Compatibility

Logic 7 includes an Audio Units Validation
Tool, which checks your existing audio unit plugins to make sure they pass
Apple's requirements. The idea here is to make Logic more robust by
preventing plugins that do not pass Apple's coding requirements from crashing
the application. While in the short term, some plugins might not load,
as plugin makers update their products we will hopefully have much more
stable plugins which means a more stable Logic. I applaud the move,
as I can' count the times a bad plugin has crashed my sequencers.

Notes on 7.1

Logic 7.1 arrived right around when OS
X went to Tiger from Panther. I can say without hesitation that Logic is
much better in Tiger in terms of graphics. To me this is the best feature
of 7.1 is how well it works with Tiger! With Tiger, the windows are less
sluggish when you have many objects on the screen, the mouse clicks are more
snappy, and 7.1 exploits these new capabilities. Get Tiger and 7.1 for the
full treat. I'm just going to touch on the
ones I think are great.

Follow Tempo Function. By
using this function your audio recordings can actually follow the tempo
of the song. Need to change the BPM to make the song more uptermpo?
The audio tracks will follow. This is much better than the old way
of using the time and pitch machine to stretch and shrink things.

Apple Loop Creation. You can
now create Apple Loops right from the arrange screen in Logic. So
when you have a great sequence that you think will be useful in other songs,
save it as an apple loop and it will show up in your loop browser.

Plug-in Delay Compensation.
It's here at last. Good news for those running the UAD-1 plugins.
It also can be set to the old behavior so you don't mess the timing up of
previously tweaked songs.

Plug and Play audio interfaces.
If you have Tiger you probably saw how it is possible to define an aggregate
device in the audio/midi setup. This allows you to use multiple
audio interfaces. In Logic 7.1 you can plug them in while the
song is running. Great stuff. Logic finally lets you use more
than one audio interface like it did under windows and does it much more
elegantly now.

Hidden Menu Bars. You can
now hide the local menu bar and scroll bars on your windows, giving you
more screen real estate. You can still scroll the windows with a mouse
with a scroll wheel and by moving the mouse against the edge of the window.

Hand Tool in the Mixer.
You can now move plugins around within the mixer strip without going
to the audio configuration window. A small feature, but one I
use every song.

Improved Jam Pack Management.
Just in time as my library is getting large.

Logic Pro screen real estate at 1920x1200 resolution. Notice how scroll
bars and menu bars can be hidden in version 7.1

Notes on 7.2

The 7.2 version is a paid upgrade
that turns Logic into a "Universal" application in Mac-Speak.
That is, it allows you to run it natively on both the Power PC Macs
and the new Macs with the Intel Duo processor. You can read
about all the features at the
Apple site.
There are 3 new GarageBand 3 plugins, 32 channels support for audio
instruments, improved Rewire and Control surface support, AAC playback
and a new sound effects library.

Logic 7.2 also gives software support
for the new Apogee Ensemble audio interface and has Pro Tools HD7
DAE support for high end Pro Tools users. It also has support
for the Serato Time& Pitch plugin, available separately.

Summing Up

The new features bring Logic up
to speed with other sequencers in areas where Logic had fallen behind,
namely tempo driven time stretch of audio loops, delay compensation
and adding more computers and audio interfaces. It is looking
like Logic may actually surpass the competition in these areas.
In the realm of plugins and audio instruments, Logic has been miles
ahead of the competition and now that lead is even farther ahead.
Of course no sequencer is ever "complete" as technology continues
to march on, but my sense is that as Logic 7 delivers on these features,
it's going to quench logicians thirsts for improved music technologies
for some time to come.